08 October 2026

any day now

My computer died on Labor Day weekend. It was sudden but not unexpected. It was showing signs, warning signs, but of course I put off dealing with it because of a general lack of time, energy, & money; also, I hate hate HATE dealing with things like this. I just want things to work, & to keep on working. The obvious & inevitable result of my ostrich-with-his-head-in-the-sand behavior was that I was forced to deal with it, on an inconvenient timeline that was not one I picked. And the whole thing has not gone well! Obviously nothing can be simple or easy or even work the way it's supposed to. I bought a replacement, then had to send it back as it was defective, then . . . well, look, I'm not interested in this stuff, why should you be?

People of course have been offering advice, which is mostly even more useless than most advice, &, what's worse, reactions of envy, as I've been freed from the suffocating embrace of our current world, &, well, NO. I still have to do the same things, they're just more difficult to get done. Yes, I survived for decades without a computer, but the infrastructure that was in place – the newspapers, magazines, phone directories, maps, box offices, &c, that could answer questions such as "when does the show start?" or "where is the venue?" – have all mostly migrated online. I've been staying abreast, at least of email, just barely, with a public-use computer, & I'm glad I have that resource, but there are drawbacks, such as other people: there is a regular user of these computers who can turn a single lozenge into an entire percussion section. I've never heard anything like it. Then there's the person who comes in to watch Fox, whom I have to remind, every single time, that he's supposed to use headphones. Not an atmosphere conducive to writing up performances, or doing much of anything else but catching up with email & then getting out.

Presumably my new system will be up & running in a few days (of course, I've been thinking that for days now. . . ). Then I have to figure out how to do the things I was used to do on my old system. We have our little shortcuts, we fall into our grooves, & now I have to re-plough those grooves in my digital earth.

Anyway: back soon with the usual fare, I hope. Thanks to those who have been checking; much love to you! And I hope to see you soon in our usual digital realms.

25 September 2026

14 September 2026

Museum Monday 2026/37

 


detail of The Fish, also known as The Fish and Flowering Branch, a stained-glass window by John La Farge, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

07 September 2026